iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 30/09/2026

Congratulations! Such fantastic news!

Reposted by Dr Laura Smith-Khan

Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 14/01/2025

In my ongoing aim of making my research more accessible, I thought I'd compile a thread of where you can find my publications in open access form, and also some TLDR summaries. Will pin this somewhere for future reference! I'll do it chronologically as a way of mapping my research journey too... 🧵

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 22/09/2026

I don't know if your podcast accepts episode requests, but this looks like it merits some kind of discussion @djag2.bsky.social @pagingdrpaige.bsky.social

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 21/09/2026

I have some quite picturesque photos from York, but this one seems particularly important to share here...

British multistorey brick building with big chimneys in a busy road. The facade in the side has large red letters SKY BLUE CHINESE RESTAURANT, alongside Chinese characters

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 20/09/2026

Unfortunately not! Wish I could stay longer...

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 20/09/2026

Next, it was on to England, via the Eurostar. Big fan of international travel via train and this time was even better, after the THREE HOUR passport control queue at Brussels airport. Train travel never looked so good. After a short visit with family, it's on to York!

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 19/09/2026

Before leaving, I fit in a trip to the wonderful city museum, STAM. Again, I'd cycled past it 100s of times when I lived there, so it was so nice to actually take out a little time to visit and learn more about this lovely city. A few tears were shed when I said my goodbyes. Tot ziens!

Black text on white wall in Dutch, French and English. title reads "welcome to the story of Ghent"

large colourful map stretches across a white, illuminated floor and stretches up the back wall. some people in the background stand looking at it

an old pretty red coloured building with white trim is in the background of a green courtyard, viewed through a multi-paned glass window

trilingual black text on a white wall reads " the oldest description of Ghent comes from an Arabic scholar Ibn Al Idrisi in 1154. Across the top of the texts runs the description itself written in Arabic

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 19/09/2026

After the conference, I had some time for meetings with UGent and other colleagues all working on language in asylum and migration bureacracies. Future plans are looking bright - stand by for updates!

a meeting room table with a big window in the background overlooking a few streets from an elevated angle, with a cloudy sky and plenty of big trees

A big redbrick old building. in front of it is a garden, marquee and a row of bikes. The photo is framed by an old red brick wall with leafy vines hanging off it

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 19/09/2026

Yes! quite trippy but also cool!

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 19/09/2026

then came 3 days at the fab CESSMIR conference. First, I co-led a lively pre-conference workshop for PhDs/ECRs with @sophiebols.bsky.social and Ben Whitham. @nandosigona.bsky.social opened the conference with a great keynote, and everything that followed was equally engaging.

Sophie, Laura and Ben sit at the front of s classroom on a slightly elevated platform. The photographer is near the back of the room and there are lots of backs of people sitting and watching

Nando Sigona stands at a dias in the front of a lecture hall. The yellow and blue CESSMIR banner is behind him and Floor Verhaeghe stands to the side of the room, listening on. A number of people are sitting in the audience, watching too

A projected slide is on the screen at the front of a classroom. it features four large circles, labelled, Law, Anthropology, Linguistics, Psychology. There are round circles with people's faces all around the circles and their names are listed in each of the four circles. The slide is entited Team.

six people sit at the front of a lecture hall, next to a yellow and blue CESSMIR banner.

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 19/09/2026

On the weekend, I managed to fit in a little time for some tourist stuff that I missed out on while living here in 2023, and caught up with some dear friends

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 17/09/2026

The trip started with the great honour and joy of serving on the jury for Lotte Remue's PhD public defence. Her fabulous research was on the guardians who assist unaccompanied minors and has already led to multiple excellent publications research.flw.ugent.be/nl/lotte.remue

Laura wears a black and yellow academic gown, holding a microphone and speaking, while sitting at a table. Marie, dressed similarly, watches on. We're both smiling

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 16/09/2026

A busy and amazing week in Ghent is almost over! So grateful for the opportunity to visit this special place once again and spend time thinking and talking about interesting and important topics with brilliant minds

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Reposted by Dr Laura Smith-Khan

Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 11/09/2026

yes, this was exactly my thinking - what a great prompt for a story!

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 11/09/2026

Any Bluesky friends in NSW, please consider reading and signing this parliamentary petition. Led by some fantastic colleagues, it seeks action for a 1988 murder conviction based on flawed confession evidence. Petition here: www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/parliamentar...

parliament.nsw.gov.au

Sign ePetition

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 11/09/2026

While I was tempted to buy it, I left this Caloundra Bowls Club jacket behind... how I wonder how it reached an op shop in Ghent!

Bright yellow zipped jacket with Caloundra Bowls Club logos

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 11/09/2026

Sometimes forgetting your coat gives you just the level of challenge you need to keep you awake until evening time. Op shop visit ✅

A street with three level historical buildings, grey pavement and road, trees, vines, and blue cloudy sky

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 08/09/2026

Back on the road again, excited for another trip to Belgium and a quick trip to England too! Such a busy work time and early summer weather that I forgot to pack a coat! 🫣

Laura sitting at station, smiling in a selfie next to a blue suitcase

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 02/09/2026

Different focal country, but that 70% guess from reform voters maps pretty closely onto those proportions from our study...

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 02/09/2026

..73% of suspects do not look white and 66% sound like non-native speakers of English. In other words, white English speakers are overrepresented among the show’s heroes and underrepresented among the show’s antagonists" languageonthemove.com/securing-the... @languageonthemove.bsky.social

languageonthemove.com

Securing the borders of English and Whiteness

The typical Aussie is widely imagined as a white English speaker Despite decades of multiculturalism, the typical Australian is widely imagined as a white monolingual speaker of English. Australian…

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 02/09/2026

Once again our Border Security work is highly relevant: "suspects provide a stark contrast to the officers. Not only are they under suspicion...to constitute a threat to Australia but their visual and aural identities are almost the inverse of the officers.... (cont.)

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 02/09/2026

Here's a great example of how harmful media and political discourse can presumably have a huge impact on public perception....

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Reposted by Dr Laura Smith-Khan

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Ethnonationalism, to put it politely. (Source: www.kcl.ac.uk/news/public-...)

Graph showing: The public wrongly assume most people convicted of homicide are from an ethnic minority. In fact, 64% are white – but the public's median guess is just 45%. Conversely, they overestimate the ethnic-minority share, putting it at 55% when the reality is 35%.
And Reform UK supporters are most wide of the mark on both measures, guessing just 30% of homicide convicts are white and as many as 70% are from an ethnic minority.

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 01/09/2026

once again this one is paywalled so shout out if you'd like a preprint. I enjoyed writing this one a lot - it involved conversation analysis of client consultation student practical activities, tracing where misunderstandings arose and why (spoiler: not because of "cultural clashes")

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 01/09/2026

Somewhat belatedly updating this thread with another new book chapter, this time, more findings out of my study of migration law students, part of a great edited connection in language and justice 👇 www.cambridge.org/core/books/l...

cambridge.org

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 01/09/2026

Super interesting read - thanks for sharing (and writing)!

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 01/09/2026

Reframe: "I regularly use my second language in a professional/academic context to communicate complex ideas and share new knowledge" (also: English pronunciation is messed up)

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 31/08/2026

Two tier citizenship, in which some groups are always under suspicion, no matter individuals' *actual* behaviour, history, intentions etc, is not inevitable. This state of affairs is constructed thru relentless media and political discourse. another eg. in collab with @languageonthemove.bsky.social

languageonthemove.com

Trust and suspicion at the airport

Anyone who has ever travelled to or from Australia will agree that the last thing you want after getting off a long-haul flight is any further barriers between you and the outside world, a shower, …

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 31/08/2026

Qin has "spent more than three decades interpreting at the highest levels... including for PMs from both sides...it is reasonable to expect that his suitability and associated security risks would have been subject to at least some...assessment" @elenacollinson.bsky.social @uts-acri.bsky.social

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 31/08/2026

In a totally novel & completely surprising move [sarcasm], the "media" are questioning the trustworthiness of the PM's Chinese interpreter. "The broader danger is that citizenship remains formally equal while the burden of proving loyalty becomes unevenly distributed." 👏@elenacollinson.bsky.social

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 24/08/2026

It seems like people are also debating things without having read UGent's detailed letter to him? It sets out the action they're taking and why, with clear and detailed explanation and reference to relevant University rules and Belgian Law.

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Reposted by Dr Laura Smith-Khan

Aarne Granlund @aarnegranlund.eurosky.social · 22/08/2026

”Blasts have been reported in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, where a bomb-disposal team was dispatched to check a forest threatened by flames near a site of fierce fighting in the Limburg province in 1944.” #EU27 #HeatWave apnews.com/article/euro...

apnews.com

Wildfires expose — and detonate — buried bombs and mines from WWI and WWII

The wildfires burning across Europe this summer have exposed a potentially deadly threat lurking beneath the blackened landscape: rusty bombs and mines from World War I and II.

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 10/08/2026

highly relatable in regional Australia too 😔

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Dr Laura Smith-Khan @lawandlanguage.org · 10/08/2026

New podcast to add to my to listen list!

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